This invention relates to golf clubs and in particular to longer distance clubs taking the form of metalwoods.
All golf clubs were initially formed with heads made of wood. A great deal of effort and expense was required to select wood which was strong, resilient and free of defects. The clubs were formed in as precise a relationship with the grain as possible to take maximum advantage of properties from the standpoints of performance and durability.
Eventually, the heads of shorter distance clubs were formed of metal and, even though various types of metal alloys and forming techniques have been used, such clubs to this day are referred to as "irons". One advantage over wood clubs is that irons can be produced with greater precision and consistency so that performance characteristics could be more readily controlled.
More recently, metal has also been used for making the heads for longer distance clubs. Because such clubs were traditionally known as "woods" to distinguish them from irons, the metal versions have been referred to as "metalwoods".
As with irons, precision manufacturing and consistency were among the reasons metalwoods were adopted. Furthermore, emphasis has been placed on using strong but lightweight metals so that performance could be optimized.
Most recently, the use of titanium alloys has become popular for manufacturing all or part of the metalwood heads. Thus, certain titanium alloys are known to have a high strength to weight ratio and are well adapted to this application.